Abstract
This paper reports about a finite element based numerical analysis of the failure mechanism developed beneath a strip footing resting on horizontal ground. The observed failure mechanism is manifested in terms of incremental deviatoric strain patterns. In order to address the effect of dilatancy, both associated and non-associated flow rule had been considered. A series of simulation on foundation models were carried out to examine the influence of mesh refinement schemes and soil shear strength properties on the failure mechanism. The numerical outcomes have been verified against experimental investigations available in literature. It has been observed that angle of dilatancy (\(\psi\)) plays a significant role in influencing the evolution of the failure mechanism. Consideration of non-associated flow rule (\(\psi\)≠ φ, φ is the angle of internal friction) leads to the development of asymmetric failure mechanisms, marked by one-directional soil movement beneath the footing, exhibiting mode-switching phenomenon at- or near-failure conditions. Considering associated flow rule (\(\psi\)= φ) results in the evolution of a symmetric failure mechanism at the failure condition of the footing. The present study reveals that beyond \(\psi\) = 3φ/4, a transition from the asymmetric to symmetric failure mechanism occurs. The study shows that, based on the appreciable agreements of the resulting pressure-settlement curves and the ratio of rightward-to-leftward displacement of the footing, FE simulations conducted with different angles of dilatancy can be effectively used to identify the angle of dilatancy prevalent in an experimental investigation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ausilio E, Conte E (2005) Influence of groundwater on the bearing capacity of shallow foundations. Can Geotech J 42:663–672
Benmebarek S, Remadna MS, Benmebarek N, Belounar L (2012) Numerical evaluation of the bearing capacity factor N′γ of ring footings. Comput Geotech 44:132–138
Bolton MD, Lau CK (1993) Vertical bearing capacity factors for circular and strip footings on Mohr–Coulomb soil. Can Geotech J 30:1024–1033
Cerato AB, Lutenegger AJ (2006) Bearing capacity of square and circular footings on a finite layer of granular soil underlain by a rigid base. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 132(11):1496–1501
Chen WF (2010) Limit analysis and soil plasticity. J. Ross publishing, Noida
Das BM (2009) Shallow foundations. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Drescher A, Detournay E (1993) Limit load in translational failure mechanisms for associative and non-associative materials. Geotechnique 43(3):443–456
Erickson HL, Drescher A (2002) Bearing capacity of circular footings. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 128(1):38–43
Finno RJ, Harris WW, Mooney MA, Viggiani G (1996) Strain localization and undrained steady state of sand. J Geotech Eng ASCE 122(6):462–473
Guo P, Stolle DFE (2013) Coupled analysis of bifurcation and shear band in saturated soils. Soils Found 53(4):525–539
Han C, Vardoulakis I (1991) Plane-strain compression experiments on water-saturated fine-grained sand. Geotechnique 41(1):49–78
Hanna AM (1982) Bearing capacity of foundations on a weak sand layer overlaying a strong deposit. Can Geotech J 19(3):392–396
Hanna AM, Meyerhof GG (1981) Experimental evaluation of bearing capacity of footings subjected to inclined loads. Can Geotech J 18:599–603
Hanna A, Rahman AME (1990) Ultimate bearing capacity of triangular shell strip footings on sand. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 116(12):1851–1863
Hansen BJ (1970) A revised and extended formula for earing capacity. Danish Geotechnical Institute, Bulletin No. 28, Copenhagen
Keskin MS, Laman M (2013) Model studies of bearing capacity of strip footing on sand slope. KSCE J Civil Eng 17(4):699–711
Kodaka T, Higo Y, Kimoto S, Oka F (2007) Effects of sample shape on the strain localization of water saturated clay. Int J Anal Numer Methods Geomech 31:483–521
Lee KM, Manjunath VR (2000) Experimental and numerical studies of geosynthetic-reinforced sand slopes loaded with a footing. Can Geotech J 37:828–842
Loukidis D, Salgado R (2009) Bearing capacity of strip and circular footings in sand using finite elements. Comput Geotech 36:871–879
Loukidis D, Chakraborty T, Salgado R (2008) Bearing capacity of strip footings on purely frictional soil under eccentric and inclined loads. Can Geotech J 45:768–787
Love JP, Burd HJ, Milligan GWE, Houlsby GT (1987) Analytical and model studies of reinforcement of a layer of granular fill on a soft clay subgrade. Can Geotech J 4:611–622
Lu X, Huang M, Qian J (2011) The onset of strain localization in cross-anisotropic soils under true triaxial condition. Soils Found 51(4):693–700
Manoharan N, Dasgupta SP (1995) Bearing capacity of surface footings by finite elements. Comput Struct 54(4):563–586
Manzari MT, Nour MA (2000) Significance of soil dilatancy in slope stability analysis. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 126(1):75–80
Meyerhof GG (1951) The ultimate bearing capacity of foundations. Geotechnique 2:301–332
Meyerhof GG (1978) Bearing capacity of anisotropic cohesionless soil. Can Geotech J 15(4):592–595
Meyerhof GG, Koumoto T (1987) Inclination factors for bearing capacity of shallow footings. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 113(9):1013–1018
Michalowski RL, Shi L (1995) Bearing capacity of footings over two-layer foundation soils. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 121(5):421–428
Michalowski RL, Shi L (2003) Deformation patterns of reinforced foundation sand at failure. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 129(6):439–449
Mokni M, Desrues J (1998) Strain localization measurements in undrained plane-strain biaxial tests on Hostun RF sand. Mech Cohes Frict Mater 4:419–441
Murthy VNS (2008) Principles and practices of soil mechanics and foundation engineering. Marcel Dekker Inc, New York
Nova R, Montrasio L (1991) Settlements of shallow foundations on sand. Geotechnique 41(2):243–256
PLAXIS (2015) Reference manual for PLAXIS, 2D v2015.02, University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
Reddy AS, Singh AK, Karnik SS (1991) Bearing capacity of clays whose cohesion increases linearly with depth. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 117(2):348–353
Rudnicki JW, Rice JR (1975) Conditions for localization of deformation in pressure-sensitive dilative materials. J Mech Phys Solids 23:371–394
Salgado R (2008) The engineering of foundations. McGraw-Hill, New York
Shiau JS, Lyamin AV, Sloan SW (2003) Bearing capacity of a sand layer on clay by finite element limit analysis. Can Geotech J 40:900–915
Skempton AW (1951) The bearing capacity of clay. Building Research Congress, England
Terzaghi K (1943) Theoretical soil mechanics. John Wiley and Sons Inc., New York
Van Baars S (2015) The bearing capacity of footings on cohesionless soils. Electron J Geotech Eng 20:12945–12955
Van Baars S (2016) Failure mechanisms and corresponding shape factors of shallow foundations. In: 4th International Conference on new developments in soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering, Nicosia, Cyprus 1–7
Van Baars S (2018) Numerical check of the Meyerhof bearing capacity equation for shallow foundations. Innov Infrastruct Solut 3:9
Vardoulakis I, Sulem J (1995) Bifurcation analysis in geomechanics. Chapman and Hall, London
Vermeer PA, de Borst R (1984) Non-associated plasticity for soils, concrete and rock. HERON 29(3):1–64
Vesic AS (1973) Analysis of ultimate loads of shallow foundation. J Soil Mech Found Div ASCE 99:45–73
Xiao-Li Y, Nai-Zheng G, Lian-Heng Z, Jin-Feng Z (2007) Influences of non-associated flow rules on seismic bearing capacity factors of strip footing on soil slope by energy dissipation method. J Cent South Univ Technol 6:842–846
Yang F, Zheng XC, Zhao LH, Tan YG (2016) Ultimate bearing capacity of a strip footing placed on sand with a rigid basement. Comput Geotech 77:115–119
Yin JH, Wang YJ, Selvadurai APS (2001) Influence of nonassociativity on the bearing capacity of a strip footing. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 127(11):985–989
Zhao L, Yang F, Dan H (2014) The influence of horizontal confinement on the bearing capacity factor N γ of smooth strip footing. Comput Geotech 61:127–131
Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to Dr. Mousumi Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi for her valuable support and guidance in comprehending the topics of shear strain localization which immensely aided in devising a critical assessment of the evolution of failure mechanism for different degrees of dilatancy.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Acharyya, R., Dey, A. Importance of Dilatancy on the Evolution of Failure Mechanism of a Strip Footing Resting on Horizontal Ground. INAE Lett 3, 131–142 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41403-018-0042-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41403-018-0042-3